A Darker Side
by Golden Moon Huntress
Summary: Liz Shaw was not just what she appeared to be on first impressions.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note**

I have no idea why my inspiration has decided this should be a thing, but I wrote it so I'll share it. Besides, the world can never have too much Classic Who appreciation.

I do not own Doctor who. Any material or quotes you recognise from the show belong to the original writers of the episodes.

* * *

"Oh, by the way, this is Miss Shaw."

Miss Shaw was a ginger haired woman with hazel eyes wearing a lab coat and a miniskirt, which seemed very impractical when one thought about it.

"How do you do?" asked the Doctor, first in Delphon, and then in English. She laughed, showing she had rather elongated canines for a human.

"Delighted Miss Shaw, delighted."

Miss Shaw had been examining pieces of what the Brigadier thought was a meteorite and Miss Shaw insisted were not, though she did say they were from space. It was all very interesting, but what the Doctor really wanted was to get into the TARDIS and he came up with a tale about scientific equipment to get Liz to steal the key from the Brigadier.

"He's a busy man, he mightn't miss it." She stared at the TARDIS. "Can I come in?"

"I don't see why not."

Liz was enthralled by the TARDIS, bounding around it with huge puppy-dog eyes - and was she trying to smell it? - but she was a little less impressed with the fact it didn't work, and the Brigadier shouted at them both for the trick. Liz frowned and shied away as though in pain.

At Madame Tussauds she was fascinated by the display of Scobie, sniffing at his jacket and pinching his hand. "What's been done to him?"

"Can't say at this point. Some sort of suspended animation maybe."

She wasn't keen on the idea of waiting for closing time at the waxworks at all. "They'll throw us out."

"We'll avoid that."

"But it'll be dark by then."

"Aren't you a bit old to be afraid of the dark?"

She blushed scarlet. "I don't think this is a good idea Doctor."

"You needn't stay if you don't want to."

"The Brigadier would throttle me if I left you unattended."

"What am I, a three year old?"

"I don't know Doctor, are you?"

Humans.

The other replicas were all only plastic. Liz sniffed at a few of them.

"What is it with you and sniffing at things?" the Doctor asked in bewilderment. He was fairly sure Jamie and Zoe had never had that obsession.

"You can learn a lot about things from what they smell like," Liz replied. "Like whether or not they're plastic fakes or not."

Humans!

"And what's your evaluation Doctor Shaw?"

"They're all plastic. All except Scobie."

"Hm."

They might have been plastic, but they came to life and marched out of the exhibit just fine. The Doctor could have sworn he saw Liz bare her teeth and prick her ears as they listened to the replicas moving and marching out. She fussed even more as they left the building, insisting on using an umbrella and glaring at the sky. In the morning her problem seemed to have vanished again and she grinned at the Brigadier as he told them he could only contact his headquarters staff. "Don't worry about that. He'll have me."

"While I can appreciate your support Miss Shaw, you are hardly the same as an armed support platoon."

"I think you would be surprised Brigadier."

The Doctor heard him mutter "indeed I would Miss Shaw" as he left.

They did defeat the Nestenes at the factory, and returned to the HQ tired, but in high spirits. The Brigadier poured them all a glass of whiskey and asked whether they could count on his help again. The Doctor talked him into giving him the use of equipment and the help of Liz for the foreseeable future in exchange.

It was an arrangement they all became happy and comfortable with very quickly. Most of the extra-terrestrial matters UNIT dealt with were debris, fragments, and oddball theorists with UFO sightings. The Doctor spent most of his time working on the TARDIS while Liz assisted or did the day to day work with the occasional input from him. It worked well. He liked Liz, even if she did still use that umbrella whenever she went outside at night.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

 **Author's Note**

I do not own Doctor Who.

* * *

Liz hadn't really thought through how inconvenient it would all be.

She'd known the Doctor wasn't human from the moment she and the Brigadier stood by his bed in the hospital and she could smell on him his _not-humanness._ She had been so starstruck by the idea of there being someone else _different_ , someone else _like her_ , that she never even considered saying no.

The biggest issue was the hours. At Cambridge she had her own lab and lived close. She worked early and late in the summer and late and early in the winter. Here there were set hours, rules and regulations, and all too often she found herself losing track of time helping or just talking to the Doctor long after night had fallen. That ship of his was the most incredible thing, even if it didn't fly, and Liz liked the way it hummed and felt alive. Occasionally she was hit by the most insane urge to let loose and race down its corridors, feeling the hum under her bare feet.

What would the Doctor think of her if she did that?

For obvious reasons, she did not.

It was tempting though. Very tempting. Very, very tempting.

It led to more slip-ups than she had ever had though, even with as many precautions as she could take. She spent more than one very uncomfortable night in the back of her car, hoping no one saw her, and on another two occasions was unable to get her car open before it happened and ended up spending the night in one of the UNIT vehicle storage sheds hoping desperately nobody decided they wanted something from in there. Several times she had to pull her car into a layby and spend the night there, and _damn_ but was it tempting to throw open the door and go for a run across the moors, except that was more than likely to get her shot by her own trigger happy workmates. Even worse was the time it happened three times in a row and she ended up rocking up to work in her rather rumpled third spare dress, which she had stuffed under the passenger seats many months ago and forgotten about. The Doctor, ever the unquestioning gentleman, took pity and let her loan clothes from the TARDIS wardrobe.

After one too many close calls on clear nights it became easier just to stay at the lab. At first she napped in the side-room where a cot had been put up, but the Doctor seemed to need as little sleep as she did, and it was so much more interesting to stay with him and watch him work or listen to him talk.

Also a problem was the times the Brigadier deemed it appropriate for them to go traipsing around in the dark. Liz resorted to avoidance and hope during those rare occasions, and so far, by some miracle, it worked.

Liz was personally very surprised.

By far the worst was the one event she couldn't have ever predicted: the day the soldiers brought in parts of something that had evidently been dug up from somewhere and contaminated with aconite. By the time Liz realised it had burnt her hands and her throat and eyes were itching. She decided to take her leave rather hurriedly, claiming an allergic reaction to something, and left that one aside for the Doctor to deal with.

Work dangers aside though, UNIT had its up sides. The work was fascinating, when not trying to kill her, she loved the TARDIS more than anything she'd ever come across, and the Doctor was full of interesting information.

Liz was almost tempted to ask whether he'd ever met anyone like her.

Almost.


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note**

I do not own Doctor Who.

Big thank you to Autohumans for the favourite!

* * *

Routines were easy to fall into on Earth, especially when working at a top secret military base. Liz spent less and less time at her home – spending time with the Doctor was so much more _interesting._ The Doctor worked on the TARDIS, and whatever tedious tasks the Brigadier brought him. He did notice Liz seemed to sleep less than most of his human companions had done, and had a strange preoccupation with the dark, but each to their own if they must. The Brigadier was happy just so long as the work got done.

"I'll go make us some tea," Liz said, getting to her feet. The Doctor hummed an agreement, too busy making alterations to the TARDIS's secondary take off circuits. He did take note of the crash that came five minutes later though, lifting his head only to slam it into the console.

"Liz?" He expected her to come back in a few minutes and tell him she'd dropped the mugs or something. She didn't, but he did hear a muffled sound from a soldier in the corridor. When she still wasn't back after another two minutes, he decided he better check on her. He quite liked Liz Shaw. She was one of the most intelligent humans he'd ever met.

He didn't find her in the canteen, but he did find Corporal Johnson cleaning up the shattered remains of a mug. Moonlight streamed in through the window.

"Have you seen Liz?"

"Doctor Shaw? She went that way." Johnson pointed down the corridor to the left. "Didn't look too well. Something wrong with her hand."

Humans, always injuring themselves. He'd best find her. The Doctor set off in search, listening and checking each of the rooms in turn, though she might have gone out to her car. There was really no need, they had a first aid kit in the lab and he had a more than adequate medical wing on the TARDIS.

He didn't find her in the surplus supply room. He did find a very large something with a resemblance to Earth wolves.

It stood at just over waist height on him, three foot at the shoulder, lithe and slim, covered in orange fur, with very, very large teeth and claws. The Doctor took a step back and reached for his screwdriver. "Hello! Aren't you beautiful?"

The wolf growled softly.

"It's alright. I won't hurt you. I'm the Doctor. Do you understand me?"

It was stood next to a pile of blue fabric, with white scraps scattered around it. The legs looked wrong somehow, too long with oddly shaped paws.

"Where did you come from then?"

Despite its appearance it clearly wasn't of earth origin. Perhaps one of the Brigadier's men brought it in meaning to show it to him and

The Doctor looked again at the pile of fabric and scraps scattered across the floor. "Liz?"

The wolf-thing pricked its ears up. He pointed the screwdriver at it again. It cowered back, its ears flattening and a low growl coming from its chest.

"Where is she? What did you do with Liz?"

Lifting one paw it bent its leg to an angle that really ought to be impossible for a beast of that build and touched it to its chest.

"Yes you. I don't see anyone else here. Now what did you do with her?"

It made that action again, this time awkwardly banging its chest twice with one misshapen paw and looking at him with a rather expectant look.

"I'm afraid I don't quite-"

It huffed and gave him a rather annoyed look, much like-

"... Liz?"

It moved its large head up and down. The Doctor gazed into its eyes, which were a perfect match for Liz's intelligent hazel ones.

"But how?" He took a step nearer and she backed away. "No one should be able to transform like that, certainly not a human. It should be impossible."

The wolf-Liz, if that was what it was, did its best impression at raising its eyebrows. The Doctor crouched down and held a hand out.

"May I?"

She backed away.

"You know I won't hurt you. I'm not one of the Brigadier's tin soldiers. Come on, come here."

Slowly, she edged toward him.

"That's it. If you really are Liz you know I won't hurt you."

She stopped just short of letting him touch her, forcing him to stretch out.

"It's quite alright. I just want to see. Won't hurt a bit."

She pressed her large wedge-shaped head to his hand. Behind the appearance she was all Liz, shining intelligence tainted by fear and horror at him finding her like this.

"It's quite alright my dear. I think you're beautiful."

She whined softly. There were some aspects that weren't human, which was unsurprising really: a desire to run and hunt, a longing for freedom, and a deep seated hunger that gnawed at her stomach. It was really quite remarkable.

"Can you change back?"

Impressions of the sunrise came to mind.

"Ah."

She withdrew from him and glared at him from across the room.

"There's really no need to look at me like that, it's not my fault now is it?"

She rumbled crossly and gave him the most displeased Liz look an overly large wolf-creature could give.

"I suppose you came in here to hide?"

She made a good attempt at nodding.

"Yes, well. Most wise of you my dear I do believe."

Were she to be seen by any of the soldiers, they would undoubtedly have killed her, trigger happy morons that they could be.

"It might be a good idea to return to the lab."

She swung her head side to side.

"It would be much less likely anyone would see you there. Anyone could walk in here at any time. I'll make sure it's clear."

Wolf-Liz rumbled softly, the sound emanating from her chest. The corridor outside was empty, the guard had already been round this hour.

"It's all clear. Come along now."

She pawed gently at her heels, clattering them against the floor, and looked at him expectantly.

"What?"

She nosed at them again and carefully picked up her dress in her mouth.

"Of course." The Doctor picked up her shoes and opened the door. "I don't know how you work in these sometimes Liz."

She made a rumbling noise that sounded a little like laughter, but she still hesitated to come out of the room.

"It's quite alright. The lab will be much safer. Come along."

Human-Liz would never be so hesitant. He couldn't blame her for that though, if they did run into one of the Brigadier's soldiers they would shoot her. The time of night was on their side however, and they arrived at his lab without having been seen by anyone. Liz nosed her way into the side room and deposited her dress on the cot. The Doctor set her heels to the side. "It really is quite fascinating. Were you born like this?"

She shook her head.

"Really? What was it then, an experiment?"

It wouldn't be the first time, although Liz Shaw had never stuck him as the insane scientist type. Another ' no' from wolf-Liz.

"When did it start then?" He realized the insanity of the question soon after asking it, since she was obviously unable to answer. Wolf-Liz trotted over to the whiteboard they used for equations and managed to pick up the pen. Her paws weren't quite canine the Doctor noticed, she had stubby fingers and opposable thumbs unlike most mammals on this planet.

'17,' she wrote with some difficulty.

"And did anything or of the ordinary happen at that time?"

She raised her eyebrows and pointed at herself.

"Yes, I quite see your point my dear." He set about rummaging through the supply cupboard to find a needle. "I'd like to take a blood sample if you don't mind."

Her ears flattened and her upper lip curled. She growled softly.

"Now Liz. You must have done this before. I'd like a sample so we can compare it to one from you in the morning."

Wolf-Liz held her front leg out and let him take the sample.

"That wasn't too bad now was it?"

She snorted and grumbled. He emptied the sample into a test tube and smeared a small amount onto a microscope slide. Wolf-Liz trotted over to his side and stood herself up on her back legs, leaning on the desk.

"Yes. You're not typical canine then. A wolf couldn't do that."

She made a noise that might have been laughter.

"Blood does bear some canine similarities, but it also looks very human still as well."

She peered awkwardly at the microscope and dropped back to the floor.

"Certainly nothing to say what might have caused this."

She grumbled softly.

"I wonder if... Wait here."

She attempted to follow him into the TARDIS. He tapped her on the nose. "No. You wait here."

She gave him a rather insulted look and trotted away across the lab. He retrieved the thenlusian scanner and returned to find her studying the chart they were working on during the day.

"Now, I just need to scan you. Won't hurt, and it might give us an idea of what we're dealing with here."

She growled warningly.

"Hold still."

She jumped out the way of the beam. He frowned. "I said hold still now, there's a good girl."

She stepped aside again.

"Liz! Stay still, it's only a scanner."

She jumped aside yet again, grumbling this time.

"Liz, hold still and let me scan you!"

She growled and dodged away from the beam, glaring at him.

"Oh would you stay still? It's only a scanner! It won't do you any harm!"

At last she stood still and let him hit her with the beam. The blue light flashed back and forth over her transformed form before fading back into the scanner.

"Now, let's see."

She trotted over to stand and peer at the scanner. He lowered it to let her look. On screen read the description 'species unknown.'

"Yes. Not the result I was hoping for I must say. Healthy adult female, high muscle mass, oh, that's interesting, elevated heartbeat compared to humans and high lung capacity. Interesting biology with the spine as well, allowing you to stand bi or quadrupedal. Fascinating. I noticed your hands as well. Much shorter fingers but still operational."

She rumbled softly, turned one clawed hand over and reached toward the scanner. He moved it away. "No Liz. You might damage the screen. I wonder if you have some form of non-human ancestry that makes itself apparent under certain circumstances."

She dropped back to all fours to walk over to the whiteboard. He frowned. "Can't you walk bipedally?"

She held one hand - paw? - out and tipped it side to side before standing again and taking the pen. 'HUNGRY,' she scrawled across the board in awkward, clumsy capitols.

"Yes. Yes, I suppose you are. What do you eat in that form, meat?"

She made a good attempt at a shrug.

"I see. Well, you stay here and I'll see what I can do."


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Note**

I do not own Doctor Who.

Big thanks to Autohumans for the favourite and review!

* * *

The UNIT canteen had very little in the way of things he could feed a hungry wolf-creature, but he did find some ham and cheese sandwiches from earlier in the day. Wolf-Liz seemed pleased enough with them. The Doctor made note of the fact she ate with her hands, further supporting his theory she was still mostly human behind the exterior.

Wolf-Liz allowed him to take samples of her fur and saliva, though she was stuck doing little more than watching him due to her inability to use most of the equipment. From her behaviour this irritated her greatly, as she spent a lot of time grumbling and making annoyed eye motions. At least, that would have been irritation in human-Liz. He didn't know what was normal for his assistant now she had turned into an overly large bipedal canine creature. She could still pass him tools, but she wasn't much use for making tea. Nor did she particularly seem to care for it in that form, glaring at the mug he offered her and shoving it aside with a cross paw.

"No tea then."

She shook her head.

"Water?" He raised an eyebrow. "Milk? Whiskey?"

She made that odd laughing noise again at the last suggestion and stamped one hand – paw? – against the floor.

"Water it is then." He moved and then looked at her again. "Can you use a glass like that?"

She made a half-circle motion with her hand-paws.

"What?"

Wolf-Liz made that exaggerated eye roll again and looked around the lab before pointing at a bowl on the side containing a few odds and ends.

"Ah. Yes. I see. Wait here then."

She took the bowl of water he offered her quite happily and lifted it with both hands to drink. She'd obviously had practise doing that before.

It was quite fascinating in itself to watch her. She evidently knew exactly what she could do and how to do it. The fur sample he took from her was also unable to be identified, but under the microscope it appeared largely canine.

Sunrise came soon enough. Wolf-Liz retreated to the side room and locked it, which was a shame. He'd have liked to see exactly how the change back worked. Liz was quiet for a very long time, and then there was movement and rustling from inside. He knocked on the door. "Liz?"

"Give me a minute."

"Are you hurt?"

"No. Embarrassed, but not hurt."

"There's really nothing to be embarrassed about my dear Liz. You should have told me before now,"

"You had no need to know, I have it under control."

"And that was why you nearly transformed in the UNIT canteen was it?"

"No, that was because one of those tin soldiers opened the damn blinds." She opened the door and walked over to the microscope. She had put her dress back on, though the Doctor noticed her heels were still laid by the cot.

"Moonlight," she said.

"What?"

"You said the ancestry might make itself apparent under certain circumstances. Moonlight are those circumstances."

"Oh, I see. Yes, yes of course."

Liz sighed heavily and peered into the microscope. "Yes Doctor, as in werewolf."

"Like that earth myth of yours? Liz, my dear, that's ridiculous."

"Doctor, you've just seen me in my transformed state, and I'm telling you moonlight is the trigger. I'd say it's close enough to being a werewolf to be accurate."

"Close enough? Close enough? Liz, you're supposed to be a scientist! We don't work with close enoughs!"

"I meant the description fits Doctor, and you can't deny it."

The Doctor harrumphed and strode over to the supply cabinet for another needle. "I do not believe in silly fairytales."

Liz curled her upper lip and showed off fangs that were definitely beyond the normal, even for her. "Ah, but those silly fairytales could have come from somewhere."

"Indeed they could. Would you be so kind as to donate another sample?"

She held an arm out. "I bet I can tell you what the result'll be."

"Do you think so?"

"Yes. You've never met anyone like me then?"

"No. No, I'm afraid not. But it's a big universe out there Liz."

"So what you said about non-human ancestry, is that really possible?"

"Depending on the species, yes. Gallifrayens for example are biologically incompatible with humans, but sikodians can interbreed quite easily." He placed a sample of the blood onto a slide. "Then again sikodians breed like rabbits, they're compatible with almost everything. You may simply have inherited the correct set of genetics. Ah, now that's interesting."

Liz smiled. "What?"

"The samples are almost exactly the same. But you knew that already, didn't you?"

"Yes. I am a scientist myself Doctor, I've done all the tests I can do by myself with the equipment I can use. Multiple times. My blood and DNA is the same between both forms." She flashed him those fangs again. "It's fascinating, right?"

"Mm." He lifted a hand to her jaw. "Liz, the…"

She ran her tongue over her teeth. "… fangs?"

"Yes."

"That'll fade. Watch." She tipped her head back and the fangs seemed to shrink, fading into her normal gumline.

"But that can't-" He jerked her head to one side. "You can't possibly have enough room in your jaw. How can that work biologically?"

"I don't know." The fangs slid back into existence, impossibly large in her mouth.

"Can you do that on will?"

"It's always easier after a change." She licked at the very sharp looking tips rather pointedly before the fangs faded back into her mouth.

"The claws are the same."

"Claws?"

She lifted one hand, displaying rather wicked looking black claws where her nails should be.

"Ah, yes. Sharp are they?"

"Rather, yes. It was probably a good call not to let me touch that machine of yours." She turned her hand over and the claws seemed to fade back into her hand, leaving behind normal looking nails. The Doctor took her wrist.

"Do that again."

She made the same eyeroll motion as Wolf-Liz and her claws faded back into existence. The Doctor tested out her fingers.

"Where do they come from?"

"I don't know," she admitted and made the claws vanish again.

There was no change to her fingers or hands to suggest where they gone.

"Still scorning that werewolf theory Doctor?"

There was a knock at the door.

"Come in."

The handle rattled. He locked it earlier he remembered, to stop anyone walking in on wolf-Liz. He unlocked it and found a fresh faced soldier stood outside. "What do you want?"

"The Brigadier wants to see you. Sir."

"Mm, of course he does. Sending for me like I'm some lackey to be summoned. Feeling up to coming Liz?"

"Of course."

The Brigadier met them in his office. "Ah, Doctor. We've had a report of unusual- Miss Shaw, why aren't you wearing any shoes?"


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's Note**

I do not own Doctor Who.

Big thank you to NikkiM18 for the favourite!

* * *

He saw her.

The Doctor saw her.

While she was transformed.

And he didn't care.

He didn't scream, or shout for the armed guard, or try to attack her. He went straight to talking, gentle, steady. It felt crazy - she barely knew the man! - but Liz trusted him. After all, he was different like her. Not-human. Even before he knew it was her he treated her as intelligent, and after that he treated her as her.

Except for smacking her on the nose. That was uncalled for.

He wanted to experiment with the moonlight trigger. He was right of course, from a purely scientific point of view there was nothing special about moonlight, nothing that should make her turn. They tried blindfolding her and standing her in the moonlight. The usual results ensued. Next they tried the blindfold and waiting for the moonlight to touch her. Same result.

"Something to do with the wavelengths perhaps. It's a fascinating process."

"Tomorrow is the full moon." She could feel it, the pull, the longing, the desire to hunt and feed and destroy. "We can't experiment then."

"Why not?"

"The full moon affects me differently. I become..." She remembered the red blood on her hands, sticky cold. She never did find out where that came from. "... Feral. Bigger, stronger." Flash and she was running, flash and she was hunting, killing, feeding. "More violent."

"But why would the full moon have a different effect? It's all moonlight."

"Tell me that when I try to rip your head off. We're not experimenting with the full moon. That's a fact."

"Very well. We won't experiment with the full moon."

"No. We won't. And... if it ever does happen... Maybe it would be better if you sicced the Brigadier and his men on me."

The Doctor frowned, lifted a hand to her head. "Liz... Why would you say that?"

Blood on her hands. Blood and fur in her nails. Blood and fur and meat in her mouth.

"Because I don't want to hurt someone. And whatever I turn into on the night of the full moon, it's not me. It's not... Wolf-Liz like you like to call me. It's dangerous. I don't want that."

"I won't let them shoot you. No one deserves that."

"You wouldn't be saying that if you saw me."

She had started staying at the HQ more and more. After all, she didn't need to sleep that much, and it seemed pointless to struggle through getting home in the dark when she could stay and help him and talk and learn, but that day she went home in the sunlight and shut herself in her bedroom away from the moon and the urge to hunt.

* * *

She supposed she'd never realized what a difference it would make, having another person that knew. It felt like a weight off her chest, and it meant there were two of them to protect her from moonlight. The novelty of her transformation soon wore off, and the Doctor was even able to persuade the Brigadier that no, she really didn't need to go on his midnight expedition raising through the woods in search of aliens sighed by sighed by the locals. (The 'aliens' turned out to be a pair of usually coloured parrots that had escaped from a private collector and the Doctor was not amused.)

He wouldn't allow her to ruin in the TARDIS though, which irritated the wolf part of her greatly. She wanted to run in his shop, feel the energy - but the Doctor refused to allow it.

Still, Liz felt happier than she had been in a long time. When armed soldiers in great clomping boots first stomped into her office in Cambridge to frogmarch her out and all but force a job upon her, Liz's first instinct had been to growl and leave as soon as she could. Then she was launched headfirst into fighting autons with a man from outer space. It was the biggest adrenaline rush she'd ever had, and the wolf in her _loved_ it. So much so she struggled to control her teeth and claws, which made working delicate wiring very difficult indeed.

As it turned out however, they did make fighting giant flesh eating centipedes remarkably easy. More difficult was explaining to the Brigadier why the aliens they had been hunting were diced to mincemeat.

"Very neat mincemeat," Liz boasted later, still trying to clean the last of the green blood from under her nails.

"Yes, one cannot deny your precision."

She grinned, the wolf pleased.

"Very neatly done. The claws then, you can do that when you wish?"

"Doctor, I thought you knew that."

"I assumed it was an after effect of the full transformation."

"No. The teeth and claws I can do anytime. It's always easier after a turn though. Stings a bit otherwise."

It had been getting easier and easier over the time she worked for UNIT as well. Liz wondered whether it was something to do with how often she was turning. On top of that the wolf was _hungry_ and the desire only growing stronger _._ She hadn't said anything to the Doctor though. He wouldn't understand. Despite his interest and help, Liz was pretty sure he didn't know or understand anything about her condition and was in fact working it out and making it up as he went along.

Which she was quickly learning was just typical of him.


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's Note**

I do not own Doctor Who.

* * *

Most of UNIT's so called 'aliens' were in fact nothing of the sort, though they did get a surprising amount of alien technology which of course had to be cleared up before the wrong people got their hands on it. Life or death situations however, were monthly, if not weekly, events.

The Brigadier had finally managed to find him a car, a bright yellow roadster which was most acceptable. The Doctor left Liz to run the lab for a while he fixed the car up. Unhampered by this planet's level of technology Liz Shaw could have done incredible things. Of course, she could still do incredible things, but she would never achieve her true potential. Sometimes he wished he could take her and show her what was out there, the wonders of the universe. One day he would, he was sure of it. What she could really do with though was someone like her, a packmate so to speak.

The Doctor was fairly sure Liz Shaw had been lonely for a very long time.

She couldn't possibly be an actual werewolf of course, that was preposterous. At the moment though there was a shortage of other theories.

She walked into the garage as he was finishing up with the car to inform him the Brigadier wanted them both to report forthwith to Wenley Moor. The Doctor bristled at being ordered around so but it did mean they could take the car, Bessie as he'd named her, for a spin. She was one of the most elegant forms of transport on this planet, but he missed his freedom. He'd only been on this planet a few months and already he was going stir crazy.

There was undoubtedly something going on at the Wenley Moor facility, what with the power shortages and the staffing issues.

"It smells funny around here," Liz complained as they searched through the records.

"Funny? Funny how?"

She sniffed and wrinkled her nose. "Not so much in here. But it did in the cyclotron room. Like… reptiles."

The Doctor frowned. "Reptiles?"

Liz seemed to think about it for a moment and then nodded. "Yes. Reptiles. It reminds me of the reptile house at the zoo."

Then there was the junior technician, Spencer, who had some sort of accident potholing and was drawing cave art on the walls and tried to attack the Doctor when he approached him. Liz growled and moved to help him. The Doctor diffused matters gently and separated himself from Spencer. Liz had her fangs and claws out. The Doctor cleared his throat and took the human doctor's attention before he noticed.

The Brigadier believed it was nothing more than sabotage and so the Doctor went into the caves to investigate, where he found a dinosaur. Of course the Brigadier then took men down there to try and shoot it, which was just typical, and one of the men managed to injure himself. The Doctor left them to play soldiers and took the blood samples from whatever the idiot managed to shoot back to the surface, along with the injured man.

Liz sniffed at the blood while he studied it under the microscope.

"Must you do that?"

"Smells reptilian. Like the cyclotron room."

"Yes, this blood does bear a similarity to several of the larger reptiles. I wonder…"

The Brigadier interrupted at that point and continued to insist that whatever it was would be defeated by military might. Director Lawrence, who ran the facility, was more concerned with the output of the facility than the dangers or wellbeing of his staff, while Doctor Quin, his deputy, was a very difficult man to keep track of.

The Doctor was quickly coming to the conclusion that everyone at this facility was an idiot. Did none of them realize the danger they were in? They were more interested in the profit and solving the power outages. Only Liz was actually listening to him.

At last they got a break when the police contacted the Brigadier to inform him of the suspicious death of a farmer whose body was found with clawmarks.

"Doctor," whispered Liz as they left the facility, the Brigadier a few steps ahead. "You don't think these creatures could be something similar to me?"

"Were-dinosaurs you mean?"

She blushed.

"No my dear, I don't think you need worry about that."

The body in the barn did have clawmarks, but too short and shallow to be the cause of death. Liz frowned and sniffed at the air.

"There's that smell again," she said. "Like reptiles. Like the cyclotron room."

"Miss Shaw, what are you going on about?"

Liz tipped her head side to side, licking at her lips. The Doctor noticed she had her fangs out again.

"But it's stronger here." She narrowed her eyes. He stepped forward and caught her wrist.

"Liz?"

She growled softly, a low rumbling sound reminiscent of wolf-Liz. The Brigadier tapped his swagger stick against his leg. "Miss Shaw, I would ask that you get yourself together."

"Doctor, I think whatever it is is still here."

"Where?"

She sniffed again, looking around them, and then pointed to a dingy corner of the barn behind a ladder. The Brigadier drew his pistol.

"There's no need for that old chap. There's a good chance whatever this is is simply frightened." The Doctor touched Liz's shoulder. "Take it easy Liz." He edged forward into the corner, where a large figure was skulking. "Hello there. I'm the Doctor."

The creature did look reptilian, taller than him and the humans, with scaly skin, gills, and a third, closed eye in the centre of its forehead. He, as it was male, felt burningly frightened with a sickening desire to go home and be safe.

"Put the gun away please Brigadier. He's just terrified, he's not threatening."

Liz tipped her head. "He's so afraid. He wants to go home. And he's injured."

She was right. He was bleeding from his chest, presumably from where the farmer attacked him with the pitchfork, and there was dried blood on his arm from what the Doctor assumed was a gunshot wound.

"I can help you."

It stared at him, panting, and then rushed toward him with a raised hand. Liz snarled, the Brigadier shouted, the Doctor jumped aside, and the reptile man charged past him. The Brigadier raised his gun.

"No, don't-"

Three shots rang out. The reptile man stumbled, staggered, and collapsed, a neat hole punched through its skull by the bullet. The Doctor dropped to its side. "Was that quite necessary?"

"Now Doctor, he was clearly about to attack you."

"No Brigadier, he was frightened and trying to escape. And you killed him."

Liz knelt beside him. "What is it?"

"Not sure yet. Not a dinosaur like the one I saw in the caves."

"So you were right, there are two of them."

"Yes. Question is, is this the only ones of its kind controlling the dinosaur, or are there others down there?"

"We'll soon find out. I'll get more men down there pronto, clear the caves."

"Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, you will do no such thing!"

"Doctor, I am in command here and these things could very well be dangerous. I'll have those caves cleared."

That proved to be a very bad idea, as the Silurians, as they called themselves, released a deadly plague into the human population. Thankfully they managed to confine it to Wenley Moor, but eighteen people still died before he and Liz could find a cure. The Brigadier responded by blowing up the Silurian base. Genocide. The Doctor shut himself up inside the TARDIS, away from all these small minded idiots. Occasionally Liz would knock on the door and call for him. He didn't answer.


	7. Chapter 7

**Author's** **Note**

I do not own Doctor Who.

Big thank you to DarkSecretWaterbender for your review!

* * *

The Doctor continued to refuse to leave the TARDIS, despite the Brigadier's demands.

"Doctor, this is childish!" the Brigadier shouted at the closed doors. "I have half a mind to have the men blow this thing open!"

The wolf inside her roared at the threat to her pack. Liz growled and flashed him her (non-fanged) teeth. "You'll do no such thing. You blew up those creatures and you will deal with the fallout like a reasonable human being."

"Miss Shaw, what you and the Doctor seem to be failing to see is that those creatures were a threat to all of humanity. Did their plague not prove that?"

"I can see the threat perfectly well thank you Brigadier. But there must have been a way to deal with it without condemning an entire species. Earth was their home too."

Liz took over in the lab, though it was less fun without the Doctor there, and she started travelling home again most evenings while it was still early enough to be light. Days trickled into a week, and then two. Liz became a solemn, sharp ghost around the base, one the soldiers turned to for information and brought a few scant alien pieces but mostly avoided.

* * *

She missed him.

It had been two and a half weeks now, with the Doctor keeping himself locked up inside the TARDIS.

And she missed him.

Liz snarled at her reflection in the mirror. She liked the Doctor, but she didn't need him. She had been a lone wolf for years; what need did she have for a packmate?

When she arrived at the HQ that morning she left with the men to investigate a report of moving rocks in Oxford.

Of all things.

The reports were right though, and it turned out they were not friendly. She tried to talk and reason with the one that appeared to be the leader, a large, lumpy black thing with a gash for a mouth and two holes for eyes. It only grunted and huffed at her before several of the smaller rock lackies swarmed her legs.

It also turned out her claws were much less efficient at dicing them than flesh eating alien centipedes. She growled at the absurdity of it all as the UNIT soldiers blasted them to pieces.

Later in the day, they found the remains of a spacecraft, if one could call it that, in a nearby farmer's field. It was badly damaged, with one side smashed in and most of the stone consoles shattered. Liz left the soldiers to gather it up and returned to the HQ by herself. It was only as she was driving back that she noticed the bloodied scratches up her hands where her claws had failed to damage the rock.

She absent-mindedly licked them clean.

It would be another three days before the Doctor finally decided to leave the TARDIS. He returned to work as though nothing had happened and nothing was wrong.

Liz humoured it, but she still went home on an evening.

He said nothing about it.


	8. Chapter 8

**Author's Note**

I do not own Doctor Who.

A big thank you to Eclectica737 and Selena92 for your follows.

* * *

Liz had largely missed a lot of the controversy over the Mars Probe due to her work for UNIT and had really only seen and heard bits and pieces of TV reports and newspaper articles. For whatever reason, yet another report was playing on the TARDIS scanner as the Doctor fiddled with the console. Liz watched it as she lounged across the captain's chair. The Doctor pulled one of the TARDIS levers.

"What are you doing?" Liz asked.

"Well, I'm trying to reactivate the TARDIS' Time Vector Generator.

"What's that supposed to do?"

"Well, it could sent you into the future, if it starts working again."

Liz bobbed her foot up and down. "How does that work?"

"It locks onto a- Good gracious." His attention turned to the screen. "Lethbridge Stewart."

Liz sighed. Now she'd never get anything resembling a straight answer.

"What on Earth's he doing at Space Control?"

Liz licked her lips. "Something's happened to the Mars Probe."

The Doctor shook his head. "Oh, and the Brigadier thinks it's his business. Oh well, I suppose he's got to do something to occupy his mind now that he's blown up the Silurians."

On the screen, the announcer continued to talk. "The world assumed that disaster had overtaken the mission. But when all hope was gone, radio astronomers at Cambridge reported that Mars Probe 7 had blasted off and was heading back to Earth.

The Doctor sighed and went back to messing with the console. Liz went back to watching the report. After all, if the Brigadier was getting himself involved they would probably be wanted to give opinions at some point.

"You can see from the radar screen, that's the screen just to the left of Professor Cornish there, that the recovery capsule and Mars Probe 7 are on convergence," continued the announcer. "This is a tricky moment for controller Ralph Cornish and his team."

Liz propped herself up as the two craft neared each other.  
"The two craft will be linking up in a moment or two."

The Doctor paused to glance at the screen. "Mm."

The two craft were side by side now, painfully close.

"What happened, do you know?"

"They lost contact with the probe months ago before it took off to come back to Earth."

"A problem with their communication equipment then? Is there any tea Liz?"

She sighed as she slid to her feet. "Doctor, I was not hired to bring you tea and tell you how clever you are."

Nevertheless, she fetched him a mug and returned to find him sat in front of the TV in the lab. "I thought you weren't interested?

"They've just linked up."

Didn't she feel appreciated? "Anything from the Mars Probe?"

On screen, the announcer was talking about the buffering of the capsules.

"No, not a sound."

"Van Lyden made it safely," announced the TV host. "This must be a moment for history."

She sat on the arm of the chair to watch the continuing report as Van Lyden injected air into the tunnel and began to open the hatch.

Liz felt it before she heard it, a sense of wrongness that made her raise her hackles and growl softly. The Doctor had enough time to give her a rather confused look before a shrill warbling sound rang through the tinny TV speakers.

Pain exploded in her ears and for a second it was everything, the only thing she felt, the only thing she knew.

The next she knew she was on all fours, half-transformed and snarling at the man in front of her.

It took her longer to understand it was the Doctor and she was in the middle of the lab with her fangs and claws out. He had that screwdriver of his aimed rather precisely between her eyes. "Take it easy Liz."

She growled before she knew what was going on and then shook her head, dropping down onto the cold tile with a thud. "That hurt," she complained, the fangs cutting into her tongue as she spoke. Slowly, the Doctor lowered the screwdriver.

"Liz?"

She nodded and retracted the fangs. "Sorry."

"Are you quite alright my dear?"

She rubbed at her head. "That damn well hurt. What was it?"

"That sound? I've heard it somewhere before."

Liz pushed herself to her feet. "When?"

"That's just it. I can't remember!"

Liz growled in annoyance at the non-answer. The noise sounded surprisingly more animalistic than she expected.

"What do you mean, can't remember?"

"Don't you understand?" snapped the Doctor. "It's all up here in my mind. The information's here, but I can't reach it. We'd better go there."

"Where?"

"The Space Centre. It's not far."

They were going _to_ the place where the scary pain-causing noise was broadcast? Sure, that seemed like a good idea.

Predictably, it was not a good idea. The sound – a message, the Doctor said – played again at the Space Centre and was just as painful, although at least this time Liz managed to keep everything under control, despite the wolf roaring with pain and anger under her skin. The Doctor did seem to be genuinely concerned with whatever was now going on though. That was either good or bad.

Liz was leaning towards bad.


	9. Chapter 9

**Author's Note**

I do not own Doctor Who.

Big thank you to DarkSecretWaterbender for your follow and review.

* * *

Humans!

Impossible creatures!

Were they so pig-headedly stubborn that they couldn't see what was right in front of them? He was trying to help; it was of vital importance that he learnt what was in that message!

"If I'm to decode those messages, I need a computer," he told the man who seemed to be in charge at the moment, some Professor Cornish.

"Go and see Doctor Taltalian. That's his department."  
"Yes, so he's just informed me. But he's being totally non-cooperative."

Liz snorted from behind him. Taltalian had told them the computers were specifically for the use of Space Centre personnel only and they would require signed passes and access cards before he could even start logging them in. Cornish flicked a button and told the man to give them full cooperation. If the Doctor had been less distracted, he might have noticed the look Liz gave the man looked rather like the expressions of her wolf-self.

"Now, if you'll excuse me?"

He wasn't giving this an iota of care!

"Yes."

Liz flashed her teeth at the screen as she followed him out.

"Let's see what he's got to say for himself this time," grumbled the Doctor as they reached the computer room. Intolerable man, worse than some of the archivists back on Gallifrey!

Taltalian had rather a lot to say for himself, most of it with a gun in his hand. He demanded they hand the recording of the message over, claiming he knew more of the importance of it. He understood the message then. The Doctor transmigrated it before he could get his hands on it. Liz rumbled softly from behind him.

Unfortunately, the Brigadier had to choose that moment to come barging in.

"Careful Brigadier!" the Doctor shouted, knowing his tendency to shoot first, ask questions later. "He's frightened."

Taltalian glanced around the room, between them and the Brigadier. Liz's rumblings grew into louder growls. Taltalian jabbed a hand at her. "You-"

Liz snarled. Taltalian's eyes widened to almost comedic proportions and he bolted for the door before even the Brigadier could move. "Don't try to follow me!"

The door slammed shut.

"I'll go after him," the Brigadier said.

"Yes, of course."

The Brigadier waved a hand at Liz. "And I expect an explanation for- that!"

The door closed for a second time behind him. Liz licked at her fangs before they faded back into her gumline. The claws remained.

"Bugger."

"Yes, I do believe that is a rather accurate summary." He could almost see the gears working behind her eyes. She must have spent so long hiding that this was unprecedented, an unknown situation.

"Still, there's not much can be done now. Ah, here's the analogue digital converter."

Liz stared at him. "Not much to be done? Doctor, the Brigadier saw my fangs! And for that matter, so did Taltalian!"

"I wouldn't worry about him my dear. Who's going to believe him? Oh, the woman I was menacing with a gun turned into a snarling wolf monster."

"And the Brigadier?"

"The Brigadier's a good chap at heart; he'll understand."

"A good chap? Doctor, can you hear yourself? For that matter, can you hear me?"

He turned and gripped her shoulders. "Look at me Liz."

She sighed and gazed up at him. When one knew what they were looking for, they could see it, hints of wolf-Liz behind her eyes, burning bright with curiosity and anger.

"What's done cannot be undone. We can only live with the consequences. I will protect you from the Brigadier and his men if it comes to that. Now, this is a matter of great importance."

Liz sighed and reached for the tape. Her claws faded back under her skin, a process that never ceased to fascinate him, no matter how many times he saw it or tried to study it. It shouldn't work, _couldn't_ work, there wasn't enough room for the claws to vanish like that, and yet fade they did. She set about lacing up the tape with slightly shaky fingers, no doubt using the task to occupy her mind. Her point was valid after all: what were they going to do about the Brigadier's seeing her?

The man in question entered the room as she was finishing with the tape.

"He got away. This place is like a rabbit warren. I've set up a search." He glanced at Liz. She kept her gaze fixed stubbornly on the tape.

"Now, would one of you kindly explain to me just what happened back there?"

"Well, Taltalian wanted me to give him the recording of the-"

"With Miss Shaw Doctor."

"Doctor Shaw is stood right here and can hear you perfectly well thank you Brigadier," Liz snapped.

"Then perhaps you would care to explain the fangs and claws yourself Miss Shaw! UNIT is intended to defend the Earth from extra-terrestrial threats, now it would appear we don't have just one but two of them under our own roof!"

"Liz isn't an alien," the Doctor said before he could stop himself. Liz shot him an exasperated glare. He had rather just given the game away, hadn't he? "And we have it all under control. Brigadier, what did you find at the warehouse?"

The Brigadier gave him that wary look that said this wasn't over by a long shot and they would be speaking about it later. "The transmitter."

"And?"

"We took several prisoners. One of them knows a great deal more than he's saying."

"Well, I'd like to have a talk with him."


	10. Chapter 10

**Author's** **Note**

I do not own Doctor Who.

* * *

She should have known this was all a bad idea.

Scratch that, she had always known this was all a bad idea.

First the Doctor, which wasn't so bad because he wouldn't hurt her, but now the Brigadier, who for all she knew might try to lock her up – or worse, knowing him.

And then there was Taltalian!

She knew nothing about the man, and he had quite clearly seen her fangs, if not her claws.

She should have quit after the autons, while she was ahead.

Liz occupied herself with coordinating with other space centres and investigating the data patterns of the recording while the Doctor gallivanted around with the Brigadier and his men organising the retrieval of the space capsule.

She could only hope he kept his mouth shut for the moment. They might have deterred the Brigadier for now, but it wouldn't be forever. Once all this drama with the Mars Probe, recovery pod and astronauts was over, he was still going to want answers as to why she turned into a 'snarling wolf monster' as the Doctor so nicely put it.

There was nothing else for it really.

They would have to tell him the truth.

Oh, he was going to be beyond furious that they hadn't told him sooner, but there was not much else to be done.

She frowned at the data printout. "Well, that can't be right."

The Doctor agreed with her theory that the message was an attempt at pictographic communication, though Taltalian's assistant doubted it. The Doctor shot him down, pointing out the repeated patterns.

Things got worse when they cut the recovery capsule open to find it empty. Liz climbed up to peer inside as the Doctor and Brigadier spoke to Cornish. It smelt like human, but there was something else as well. Not-human. Not not-human like the Doctor, not-human like something else, something she'd never encountered before. A more familiar smell lay over the top and she checked the Geiger counter without thinking. "The interior's radioactive. If anyone was in there, they're as good as dead."

Except part of her doubted it was the astronauts. They would smell like human, not like not-human and radiation. She told the Doctor of her suspicions on their way to Sir James' office.

"Yes, I quite agree with you. I had my own suspicions about that."

"So where are our astronauts?"

"If we're right about this, and they're lucky enough to still be alive, still in orbit."

The phrase _if they're lucky_ did not inspire her confidence.

Sir James introduced them to a man called General Carrington, who smelt very faintly of space and more strongly of radiation. He explained the Mars Probe had passed through a high density radiation belt on its way back to Earth orbit and the astronauts had been infected with contagious radiation. They had been removed from the capsule in secret as the government didn't want the public to panic or anyone else to be exposed to the radiation.

Both of them smelt and acted entirely insincere and the longer Liz was in the room with him the more Carrington smelt of space and radiation. She clenched her fists to stop her drawing her claws.

Carrington offered to take them to the astronauts, but whatever came down in the capsule was gone by the time they got there. From there things were a bureaucratic nightmare, with hold-ups in every direction. Cornish, at least, was trying to help them get a capsule in go condition. The stench of radiation that had covered Recovery 7 had almost entirely faded and the Doctor swept it with a Geiger counter as Cornish bemoaned Sir James and red tape.

"It's the most extraordinary thing. The radioactive contamination has almost vanished. If you can't get Recovery 8 ready in time, you can use this capsule."

One of the soldiers strode over to pass her a message from the Brigadier, requesting they go to Hertfordshire to look at two bodies found dead of radiation poisoning in a gravel pit.

"Are you coming?" she asked.

"No, I'm going to stay and get this capsule fully operational."

So she'd have to face the Brigadier on her own then. Great.

"You can take Bessie if you want."

Now, if only she had a guarantee the Brigadier wouldn't shoot her on sight.

A car started following her about ten minutes into the drive. Well, wasn't her day just going from bad to worse? She spun Bessie around to go back the way she came and floored it. Unfortunately, while the Doctor's little roadster was nice, it wasn't made for car chases, and the newer vehicle quickly overtook her, stopping across the road.

The wolf under her skin snarled.

Here was not the place, she told herself as she ran, here was absolutely not the time or place. It was not the place, it was not the time.

The men were bigger than her, they had longer legs, and they were close now. She couldn't outrun them, and the wolf in her would never submit to being captive.

* * *

The Doctor hummed as he worked. Someone tapped him on the shoulder.

"Doctor?"

He slid out from the capsule to frown at the Brigadier. "You're back soon."

"Well, I started back an hour ago."

"But Liz has just gone to meet you. We received a message asking us to join you. You didn't send it?"

This could not possibly be good news.

"I'll get after her."

* * *

It really was quite unnecessary. By the time the Brigadier caught up, he found Doctor Elizabeth Shaw covered in blood, trying to restart that ridiculous roadster of the Doctor's, and two dead men lying a short distance away.

"Miss Shaw!" he shouted, hurrying over to her. "Are you hurt?"

"I'm quite fine Brigadier. Can you give me a hand with this? I can't seem to get her started."

He stared at her. "Miss Shaw, you're bleeding."

She lifted an arm and studied it as though only just noticing the blood dripping from her hand. "Oh, none of that's mine."

He pointed at the dead men. "What happened to them then?"

She shrugged. "I have absolutely no idea."


	11. Chapter 11

**Author's Note**

I do not own Doctor Who.

Big thank you to Eleganceiris for the follow and favourite and to the Guest for the review.

* * *

They both proved unable to get Bessie going again, so the Brigadier pushed her to the side of the road for his men to pick up when they came to deal with the bodies. Liz lounged in the back of the jeep and scrubbed the blood from her hands.

The Doctor met them back at the Space Centre, where he was still working on the Recovery Pod. Miss Shaw assured him of her condition and accepted his offer of taking his jacket to replace her own torn and blood soaked blouse.

"At least we know one thing," the Doctor said.

"And what's that?"

"Someone is definitely trying to interfere with matters." He went back to working on the pod. The Brigadier cleared his throat. "Ahem."

"Not now Brigadier," called the Doctor, "this is important."

That couldn't be denied, so he left them to it, but they would need to have words about this. The report he got back from the soldiers who investigated the scene where he found Miss Shaw said it looked like the two men had been ripped apart by some sort of animal.

* * *

Taltalian tried to blow them up, which no one saw coming, though it did at least remove the problem of him seeing her, and they finally managed to see one of the so-called astronauts, which had just killed Sir James, which was… unfortunate. The thing stank of radiation and space and non-humanness. Liz growled at it. The Doctor touched her arm and shouted for the Brigadier to let it leave.

"Do you know what it was?" Liz asked.

"No," the Doctor replied. "But I'll do my best to find out."

He went ahead with piloting the recovery pod himself, and Liz again tried to tell herself she shouldn't care, she should never have got so close, as first an issue with the fuel nearly blew the thing up and then being taken by a mysterious UFO once in space.

Stranded on Earth, the wolf under her skin snarled and gnashed its teeth at its inability to help its packmate.

Things worsened from there. The Doctor was kidnapped from the pod when he landed and General Carrington took charge of the Space Centre, determined to blow the UFO from the skies. He smelt more of radiation and space and deceit with every minute that passed. Liz pulled the Brigadier aside. "There's something wrong with Carrington."

"Yes, he does seem rather… pragmatic."

"No, I mean there's something really wrong with Carrington. He smells like the aliens, and he's been lying to us."

The Brigadier frowned. "He smells like the aliens Miss Shaw?"

Liz shrugged. "Later Brigadier. Just… watch out for him."

She was proven all too right not an hour later when they started picking up SOS signals and Carrington had all the UNIT men detained, took control of the Space Centre, and ordered them arrested. Liz exchanged a look with the Brigadier as they were marched down one of the tunnels under the Space Centre and flashed him her fangs as a half-question, half-warning before slamming her elbow into the stomach of the man holding her and spinning round to sink her fangs into his shoulder. The impact threw them both to the ground and she ripped through his uniform and chest with her claws. Behind her, the Brigadier disabled the other man and took his gun. "Miss Shaw!"

She sprang to her feet and charged after him to the car a short distance away. Bullets impacted against the walls and doors as they threw themselves inside, lodging in the engine and bodywork. Liz growled softly as the Brigadier floored the accelerator and the vehicle shot away from the Space Centre. There was silence for a long time as several soldiers stationed on the road took pot shots at them.

"Stay down Miss Shaw!"

She did so, keeping herself tucked beneath the window. There was blood coating her hands and face, dripping down her throat. Liz licked it from her fingers.

"Are you hurt?"

Of all the first questions, that was not the one she was expecting.

"No. I'm quite fine."

Depending on the definition of 'fine' of course. The Brigadier glanced at her and Liz wondered what he was seeing, what with her covered in blood and still with her claws out.

"Am I allowed to ask what exactly you are Miss Shaw?"

"So far, werewolf is the best description, although it does annoy the Doctor some."

"I see."

They were silent for the rest of the thankfully short trip to the radio communication centre. Liz licked the blood from her hands.

From there things became a lot more straight forward, though she did give a few of the men, Sergeant Benton in particular, rather a scare when she walked in covered in blood.

"Don't ask," muttered the Brigadier. "Those SOS signals. Did you get a fix on them?"

It was army land, a firing range.

"Carrington," the Brigadier said.

"Mm," agreed Liz. She had warned him.

There were only two men at the Radio Communication centre. Most of them had been over at Space Control.

"I could go as well," Liz said.

"Absolutely not Miss Shaw. I need you to stay here and help Sergeant Benton."

Liz raised her eyebrows. "It would give you another man Brigadier."

"I believe the Doctor would be most displeased if I let you get shot."

Liz ran her tongue over her fangs. "I believe you'd appreciate another person on your side."

The Brigadier relented. He requested a revolver and a jeep, only one of which was possible. There were no jeeps. They were all at Space HQ, and the staff car they had come in had taken one too many bullets to make it reliable.

That left Bessie, which the UNIT men had brought back after the tried and failed kidnapping of her. The Brigadier was not best impressed, but they needed the transport and took the car anyway.

They found the Doctor and two of the aliens being held captive in a small lab on the firing grounds. He was surprisingly ungrateful to be rescued. After explaining the situation to him, the decision was made to have the aliens help get them back into the Space Centre to stop Carrington's broadcast and return all three alien ambassadors home.

"Are you alright Liz?" the Doctor asked during the drive. She tugged on a bloodstained sleeve.

"I ruined your jacket."

"Oh, don't worry about that! Are you hurt?"

"None of it's mine." She stared at Bessie's dashboard. "I told the Brigadier."

"And how did he take it?"

She nodded. "Surprisingly well actually, although that could be because we're in the middle of a crisis."

"Yes."

The aliens helped them break back into the Space Centre and they shut Carrington's broadcast down. He continued insisting that the aliens were dangerous and it was his moral duty to destroy them. He was marched away as a threat to national security and the Doctor left her to help coordinate with the alien ambassadors.

* * *

It took them nearly twenty four hours to get the alien ambassadors back to their ship and the three human astronauts back to Earth. Liz changed into a clean lab coat, though there was nothing to be done about her skirt and boots, which were still splattered with blood. Most of the employees at the Space Centre gave her a bit of a berth. She had to admit it was a relief when she finally got back to her flat and stepped under the shower.


	12. Chapter 12

**Author's Note**

I do not own Doctor Who.

* * *

Humans.

The Doctor was sure he would never understand them.

The Brigadier was angry.

He wasn't angry about Liz's… issue.

Oh no.

Not that.

"So," the Brigadier started. "When were you two planning on telling me about Miss Shaw's condition?"

Liz stared at the desk.

"We were not," replied the Doctor.

"And why not? I am your commanding officer; it is my job to know these things!"

"Unit is an organisation dedicated to investigating and combating paranormal and extra-terrestrial threats to the Earth."

"Yes, we're quite aware of your job description thank you Brigadier," replied the Doctor. Liz stayed quiet.

"Then did it never occur to either of you that I might appreciate knowing I had a second non-human entity under my roof?"

"I can't say it did old chap."

The Brigadier stopped pacing and stared at him. The Doctor stared back.

"I am UNIT's commanding officer-"

"And I knew you'd react like this!" The Doctor moved to stand rather pointedly in front of Liz. "Liz was terrified that you would have her locked up – or shot, given how trigger happy you lot seem to be. I can't say I disagreed with her."

"That was not your decision to make."

"No," Liz said, "but it's not really yours either, is it Brigadier?"

He frowned. "I beg your pardon Miss Shaw?"

"I fail to see how any of my personal life is any of your business really."

"Miss Shaw, this really is something I needed to know about."

"Why?"

He frowned. "What?"

"Why? Why should you need to know? It's private, and I like being bullet-hole free thank you very much."

"And if you're dangerous?"

Liz seemed to be thrown by that accusation, stopping to simply glare at the Brigadier.

"Has she been dangerous before?" the Doctor asked. The Brigadier glanced between the two of them.

"Well- No."

"No. Then why should she become dangerous now?"

"She certainly looked dangerous enough in that tunnel!"

"If you've forgotten Brigadier, you were dangerous enough in that tunnel! You used the weapons at your disposal; I used mine!" She flashed him her fangs, which, in retrospect, probably didn't serve to help.

"I didn't rip a man's throat out with my teeth!"

That was perhaps a good point. Liz could be surprisingly animalistic when she wished to be.

"No, you just shot him instead! I fail to see the difference!"

The Doctor reached behind him to take hold of her arm. The Brigadier sighed. "Very well. I expect a report on what exactly you are, Miss Shaw, and what you can do, on my desk by the end of the week."

Liz growled. "I am not a performing monkey!"

"The report will of course be top secret, but as your commanding officer I need to know what you can do and what contingency plans I might need."

Liz opened her mouth to snarl out another refusal and the Brigadier cut her off.

"UNIT is the largest and the most efficient, but hardly the only alien fighting organisation out there. There are worse people than me Miss Shaw."

Liz narrowed her eyes and gave him a sharp nod. The Doctor gave the Brigadier one last glance before guiding her from his office and back to the lab.

"Well, that went better than I expected," she remarked when they were safely back behind closed doors.

"Do you know anything about other organisations?"

Liz shrugged.

"Whispers. The well known ones are a laughing stock, old men or outcast scientists trying to build their own 'alien detectors.' And of course, I don't know anything about the more secret ones."

"No. Anyway, let's see about this report shall we?"

* * *

Liz delivered the report to the Brigadier in the morning. "Is there anything I should be aware of? About these other organisations?"

"Not at all Miss Shaw. You're UNIT staff now, and UNIT looks after their own."

Liz felt more like UNIT property.

This was exactly why she hadn't told him!

That and the whole 'might try to shoot her' thing.

She returned to the lab and flopped down in one of the chairs. "It's getting easier."

"Hm?"

"This." She held a hand out, twisting it round as her claws slid out. "It used to be harder than this."

"Mm."

"Doesn't hurt so much anymore." She twisted her hand again and the claws vanished. "Or maybe I'm just getting more used to it."

"Mm."

"Doctor, are you listening to me?"

"Mm."

She glanced over her shoulder. "You are not!"

"What? What was that?"

"You're not even listening to me?"

"I am sorry Liz. What was it you were saying?"

She gazed at her hand. "Oh, nothing important. I'm probably just worrying unnecessarily."

But it might still be a good idea to cut back a little on how often she was shifting.

Just in case.


	13. Chapter 13

**Author's note**

I do not own Doctor Who.

* * *

The Brigadier did agree not to send Liz on any more night missions, which was one bonus of him knowing. He also issued a command that the men were absolutely not to shoot Miss Shaw if she did something unexpected, and nor were they to speak of her outside the base. The picture in her file was switched out for that of one of the cleaning ladies.

The Brigadier did have his advantages as a commanding officer.

* * *

Humans, the Doctor decided, would never stop trying to destroy themselves. Trying to drill through the Earth's crust for energy, that was an insane plan!

That was only proven by the fact the planet was fighting back, oozing green slime and transforming the humans into violent Primords.

That was before he was knocked sideways into another universe.

There was no Liz Shaw in the parallel universe. At least, not with UNIT. The Doctor wondered whether that meant without him she had simply chosen not to join, or if there was a more… sinister reason.

After all, this version of Earth was certainly more violent and brutal than his own. He was most glad to get back to his own universe, though it was a close call as lava overwhelmed the parallel Project Inferno base.

Afterwards, when he had stopped the drilling at their Earth's site (and also failed to get the TARDIS properly working), the Brigadier was very sceptical about his experience, but Liz drank it in.

"Do you think she was like me? The me from that universe?"

"Mm. I wouldn't like to say."

"But surely it has to be a possibility."

"Anything is a possibility. You're like this in one universe; there's no reason for you not to be in another. It's simply that you weren't there."

Liz rested her chin on her elbows and gazed at him. "Do you think there are any others? Like me I mean?"

"Perhaps. I've never met any, but it's a big old world out there, and an even bigger universe."

Liz closed her eyes. "If you ever get that ship of yours going, do you think we could look?"

"I don't see why not."

She smiled. "I'd like to know there was someone else like me. Just one would do, so I'm not on my own."

"Oh, Liz, you're not on your own! You've got me, and the TARDIS, and the Brigadier."

"Not exactly the same Doctor. You're not like me."


	14. Chapter 14

**Author's Note**

I do not own Doctor Who.

* * *

Liz had never felt so alone and out of control.

The wolf in her yearned for the moon, for the land to roam, for the meat to eat-

And not only on the full moon anymore. She could feel it during the day, the expectation, and feel the _need_ grow as the sun went down. She was hungry all the time, a gnawing, gnashing, furious hunger that devoured her from the inside. She longed to run and be free.

She wasn't sure what had changed. Was it how often she was shifting, as she had assumed? Or some sort of natural maturing? Or- Or something to do with the fact she had _pack_ now? Not like her of course, there was no one like her, but they were pack, and maybe the wolf felt the need to protect them.

On top of that, she was beginning to feel more and more like UNIT property, what with the Brigadier telling her what to do and where to be and everything else short of what to wear, and the Doctor didn't really need a scientific assistant (he needed someone to pass him test tubes and tell him how clever he was, a role which Liz did _not_ fulfil).

"Can't you get him an actual assistant?" she complained to the Brigadier. ""I was brought in as a scientific adviser for UNIT, not to fetch and carry. Or be studied."

"I would have thought helping repair a supposed time machine was your kind of job."

Liz sighed. The wolf under her skin growled. "Brigadier, I am a fully qualified scientist, not a glorified tea lady."

The Brigadier agreed to look into getting the Doctor an actual assistant, although Liz doubted his sincerity somewhat. He didn't exactly smell sincere.

* * *

She gazed at the closed blinds that night, drumming her fingers against the table as the Doctor prodded at the newest chunk of rust to be brought to them.

"Is everything alright Liz?"

"Hm?"

"You've been quite distracted lately."

"Oh, just thinking."

He put his spanner down and joined her. "Anything you want to talk about?"

"I'm bored."

"Ah."

"I didn't come here to fetch and carry."

"No."

She got to her feet. "I want to go running."

She half expected him to try and talk her out of it, but instead he smiled. "Why not?"

* * *

They took Bessie as far away from the UNIT Headquarters as they could, into the moors, and Liz pulled off her shoes and clothes before stepping out into the moonlight.

It felt like forever since the wolf had last been able to run free, to stretch her legs and explore the land. She had done so in her younger years, up until the day she was nearly shot dead by a farmer.

She howled at the moon, the sound ringing out in the black silence. When she was younger she had hoped, wished, longed for a reply. It never came.

The not-human man couldn't keep up, not with her four legs and strength and stamina, and she went exploring over this new territory.

The wolf wished the night would never end.

Exactly why she never did this before she would never know.

When the sun finally started to come up she found a place to settle down until the Doctor could find her and bring her dress.

"Feeling any better?"

"Not really," she replied, but it didn't matter any more.

She didn't need a reply from the dark and the silence and the moon.

She wasn't alone, not really, and while she wasn't alone she still had control.

She had what she needed right here.

 **Author's Note**

I went back and forth on this chapter and ending, hence why it took so long, and I'm still not entirely happy with it. Will I come back to this verse? There's a vague possibility for sometime in the future, since I did enjoy writing it, but this is the end for now. A big thank you to everyone who read and enjoyed!


End file.
